‘Water dept official wanted higher posts’

Minister for water resources Girish Mahajan revealed that Hiralal Mendhegiri, advisor to the water resources department, had demanded the post of principal secretary and others which was not possible, and this was the main reason behind his resignation. Mr Mendhegiri resigned from his post last week, alleging that the government did not take his consent before signing a MoU with Telangana over the water distribution issue. Meanwhile, Mr Mahajan reiterated that the state would borrow more than '40,000 crore to complete pending irrigation projects.

Mr Mendhegiri was supposed to be the whistleblower, who exposed the scam in the irrigation department, and was appointed by the Devendra Fadnavis government as advisor to the water resources department after his official retirement as secretary to the department. He resigned from his post as advisor on March 10 last week, saying that the state had disappointed him. “Neither his role and scope of duty had been confirmed nor had he been given staff,” he said.

Mr Mahajan said that he had expectations of being made principal secretary (PS). Mr Mahajan questioned as to how he could appoint another PS when he already had a PS for his department. “There were other several reasons which cannot be disclosed now,” Mr Mahajan said. He added that Mr Mendhegiri was a genuine and honest officer and that is why, they had given him the responsibility to guide the state. Mr Mahajan added that the CM had not yet accepted Mr Mendhegiri’s resignation.

While speaking on how his government would increase the percentage of irrigation from 0.01 per cent to some accountable extent, Mr Mahajan said, “This year, my department has spent the complete allocation of '7,200 crore, which would have irrigated 48,000 Ha land. But this amount is not sufficient as we have pending projects worth '90,000 crore and hence, we have decided to prioritise in order to complete last mile projects. We are planning to raise a loan of '50,000 crore in one stroke to complete all pending projects. We will get the loan at cheaper interest rates.”

Countering Mr Mahajan’s statement, former CM Prithviraj Chavan said that the state had the will to focus only on last mile projects.